{"id":2529,"date":"2010-01-13T03:50:35","date_gmt":"2010-01-13T09:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/?p=2529"},"modified":"2022-04-22T12:40:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T17:40:43","slug":"accidental-hardball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/?p=2529","title":{"rendered":"Accidental Hardball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I mentioned in October 2008, we buy our electricity from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenmountainenergy.com\" target=\"_blank\">Green Mountain Energy<\/a>, which focuses on renewable energy sources like wind and hydroelectric. When we moved to Euless, I locked in a rate of 15 cents\/kwh for 12 months on their 100% wind plan. I knew I could get cheaper electricity elsewhere, but I wanted to support wind power and was willing to pay extra. <\/p>\n<p>Over time, I grew frustrated with their ironic refusal to offer paperless billing and began shopping around. An independent website, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.powertochoose.org\" target=\"_blank\">PowerToChoose.org<\/a>, gives Texans an easy way to compare electric rates and plans for power companies across the state. I found plenty of better deals and swore to fire Green Mountain once my contract ended. Once our massive December electric bill arrived (through the mail, grumble grumble), I realized I could save money by breaking our contract and paying the early cancellation fee. Reliant (you know, the one that employs &#8220;Tom&#8221;) was offering 10.5 cents\/kwh. I could recoup the cancellation fee in the first month. <\/p>\n<p>I called GM and said I wanted to cancel, so they transferred me to the &#8220;cancellations department&#8221;, also known as retention specialists. In many cases, they have powers to bend the rules that normal phone reps do not. I&#8217;m sure they get evaluated on how many customers they can convince to stay. I explained my situation to Jose. Like magic, he offered me a new rate of 11.5 cents\/kwh with no cancellation fee. Sure, it wasn&#8217;t quite as good as some of the other companies&#8217; rates, but it was much better and let me avoid a $200 extra hit right after a month with no overtime shifts for me. Plus it let me keep using green power. I said yes. <\/p>\n<p>Although some people threaten to cancel service mainly as a negotiating tactic, I honestly planned to cancel until Jose convinced me to stay. The lessons here?<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Pay attention to your bills and to the competition so you know what price is fair.<\/li>\n<li>If the competition offers a better deal, don&#8217;t be afraid to tell your company and see how badly they want to keep you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I mentioned in October 2008, we buy our electricity from Green Mountain Energy, which focuses on renewable energy sources like wind and hydroelectric. When we moved to Euless, I locked in a rate of 15 cents\/kwh for 12 months &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/?p=2529\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10683,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529\/revisions\/10683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}